1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for synthesizing motion pictures of cyclically functioning internal body organs from the monitor control signals provided by a scintillation camera excited by radiation from a bolus of radiopharmaceutical material transiting or standing in the organ being examined, and more particularly to apparatus for recording such synthesized internal body organ motion pictures in a closed, repeatedly scanned array on a disc or closed loop of photographic film and for presenting such synthesized motion pictures of cyclically functioning internal body organs on a viewing screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Scintillation cameras for use in producing rudimentary pictorial representations of internal body organs on a suitable monitor when excited by radiopharmaceutical materials translating or standing in such organs are well-known in the prior art. Such prior art scintillation cameras in general produce electrical monitor control signals in X, Y, Z format, which can be used to excite a suitable monitor to display said rudimentary pictorial representations. Automatically operated cameras, or imagers, for photographically recording a plurality of said rudimentary pictorial representations in sequence in a predetermined parallel linear array on a single piece of cut film are also well-known in the prior art. The prior art also teaches that in a scintillation camera-imager combination stepping signal generating means may be provided to repeatedly trigger the imager circuit and thus move the rudimentary pictorial representation forward from position to position on the monitor screen circuit during a functioning cycle of the internal body organ being examined, thereby producing a series of photographs of predetermined phases of the functioning of the internal body organ being examined arranged in a parallel linear, left-to-right array on a single piece of photographic film. The operation of this prior art stepping signal generating means is synchronized with the cyclical functioning of the internal body organ being examined by means of bioelectrical signals derived from the patient being examined. It is also taught in the prior art that the quality of the rudimentary pictorial representations thus photographically recorded may be enhanced by reexposing the same areas of the same sheet of cut film to the monitor display during their corresponding phases of many successive functioning cycles of the same internal body organ. It has also been suggested in the prior art that these synthetically enhanced series of pictorial representations of successive phases of the cyclical functioning of an internal body organ be assembled by manual "cut-and-paste" methods into a continuous loop of film wherefrom a motion picture of the internal body organ can be projected. This manual method of synthesizing motion pictures of internal body organs is not believed to have been used, because of the inordinately high labor costs involved, and also because of the practical difficulties involved in thus producing a film loop in which each frame is perfectly registered with every other frame and also with the sprocket holes, or the like. Further, the usefulness of the prior art method of employing a scintillation camera and a parallel linear array imager triggered by bioelectrical signals to produce phase photographs of cyclically functioning organs is seriously limited by the great loss of resolution resulting from reducing display picture size to allow the display of, say, 16 pictures on a single monitor display screen.